“When it comes to frontline services, we are not getting a lot of the important stuff people feel we should get in Alberta,” said Notley, who visited Fort McMurray with NDP Edmonton-Calder MLA David Eggen. “Healthcare is stretched. Education is stretched. Care for seniors is very stretched. All over the province, vital services are stretched.”

The internal report says renovations at the Northern Lights Regional Health Centre are needed to provide basic long and short-term services. Immediate development of nine additional antepartum, LDR, and postpartum rooms, “along with appropriate and adequate support spaces” is in demand.

The report, obtained by the NDP through a Freedom of Information request, cites Fort McMurray’s growing population since the hospital first opened in 1980 as a major contributor to the hospital's overcrowding. The report was completed sometime in 2014.

“The fact that the PCs have known about this critical issue for so long and done nothing shows that either they don’t respect voters or they’re incompetent, or both,” said Notley.

It warns that the lacking procedures cannot be performed anywhere else but the hospital’s acute care facility, as no other organization in Wood Buffalo is equipped, qualified or staffed to shoulder the burden.

The report estimates that nine additional beds would cost $7 million annually, excluding maintenance. During the next 20 years, child-bearing women are expected to reach 92.6% and the birth rate is expected to increase 55.4%.

“The most critical risks of non-approval are patient safety and patient and community satisfaction,” the report warns, adding that a needs assessment was completed in May 2013. “The ability to meet the community’s needs is (sic) already deficient, and all projections show a significant increase in population in Fort McMurray, which will further compound the problem if action is not taken.”

Expansion of maternal and childcare facilities has been a public concern to the Wood Buffalo Health Advisory Committee for several years now.

Fort McMurray-Wood Buffalo MLA Mike Allen says the province is concerned about the report, but the struggle lies with attracting staff and waiting for the completion of a long-term care centre in Parsons Creek.

“We only have three ob-gyns in town and the chief of staff is trying very hard to attract more ob-gyns, as well as general practitioners specializing in maternity care. They just don’t have the numbers,” he said. “You can double the facility’s size, but at the end of the day, you will have an empty floor if you can’t get any staff up here.”

“To me, those 9% cuts look like major increases to class size. We should be worried about a whole bunch of kids taking years to meet basic educational goals,” she said. “It looks like more wait times in emergency rooms. It looks like a growing inability to deal with mental health. It looks like much needed infrastructure getting delayed.”